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When the Earth Was Purple

Posted by kdawson on from the how-violet-was-my-valley dept.

Ollabelle writes "It's always been a bit of a mystery why plants absorb red and blue light, reflecting green, when the sun emits the peak energy of the visible spectrum in the green. A new theory offers one possible answer: that the first chlorophyll-utilizing microbes evolved to exploit the red-and-blue light that older green-absorbing microbes didn't use, eventually out-competing them through greater efficiency and the rise of oxygen."

1 of 278 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Still fighting old battles by EugeneK · · Score: 1, Flamebait

    What in Christianity (for example) is incompatible with life on other planets?

    I think the problem is this: Christ (the only Son of God) died (on this Earth) to redeem mankind because of man's sins (on this Earth). Now, if there is intelligent life on other planets and if that life sinned also, then Christ would have to be incarnated there, and die there as well. I think it's not so much as incompatible as simply inelegant. It makes you want to say, "why can't Christ just be incarnated somewhere in the middle of the universe and die and rise again there for the whole universe's sins, rather than at 30 AD in Jerusalem, Earth, and at 200,000 AD on the planet Zardoz-3 in the city of Qyynax'gbtht, and..etc."